bats. Now we come
back from our first fight and we find you in one of the beds
we had made. We are not able to put you out of it. One of us
must stay out of bed and the one that stays out will die
to-night. Then we shall be only two against the Giant and he
will kill us when we come to combat again." And when the
first one had said all this the three youths began to moan
and groan again.

Feet-in-the-Ashes got out of bed. "You can have your rest,
the three of you," said he. "And as for me I can sit by the
fire with my feet in the ashes as often as I did before." The
three youths got into the three beds and when they were in
them Feet-in-the-Ashes took the pot of balsam that his
grandmother had given him and rubbed some of it on each one
of them. In a while their pain and their weariness left them
and their wounds closed up. Then the three youths sat up in
their beds and they told Feet-in-the-Ashes their story.

[Illustration]

"Cluck-ee, cluck-ee, cluck-ee, cluck, cluck," said the Hen-grouse,
"and what was the story they told?"

"Cluck, cluck," said the Cock-grouse, "wait until you hear, cluck,
cluck."

Said the first of these youths, "On this island there is a
moor, and on that moor there is a stone, and that stone is
not known from other stones, but it is the Stone of Victory.
The Giant Shamble-shanks has not been able to find it
himself, but he fights with all who come here to find it.
To-day we went to the moor. As soon as we got there the Giant
came out of the Grey Castle and fought with us. We fought and
we fought, but he wounded us so sorely that we were like to
die of our wounds. We came back to rest here. Thanks to your
balsam we are cured of our wounds. We'll go to fight the
Giant to-morrow, and with the surprise he'll get at seeing us
before him so soon we may be able to overcome him."

"And along with the surprise, there's another thing that will
help you," said Feet-in-the-Ashes, "and that is myself. I
have to fight the same Giant Shamble-shanks and I may as well
fight him in company as alone."

"Your help will be welcome if you have not come here to win
the Stone of Victory."

"Not for the Stone of Victory I have come, but to win back
the three teeth that were knocked out of the King of
Ireland's head and to avenge the insult that was offered to